The University of Alberta’s board of governors has approved a controversial hiring policy that eliminates equity, diversity and inclusion.

The new policy was approved on Friday a year after the university first announced it would be moving away from the language of EDI because it had become polarizing for some. 

Ahead of the meeting, student groups, the academic staff association and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association authored letters urging the board to change course.

Previously, if two candidates were equally qualified for a position, the school’s policy was to favour the one from a historically underrepresented group. Now, that practice will come to an end.

Board member Diane Wheatley said the reason the new policy was brought forward is because the traditional EDI categories were too narrow, not addressing systemic barriers for everyone. 

“We did want to open up the parameters so that people felt like they belonged, that the community was embracing them and they didn’t have to fall into one category or another in order to feel that the university was supporting them,” she said.

The university’s general faculties council, its academic decision body, recommended rejecting the new policy, but the board gets final say.

University of Alberta Students’ Union president Pedro Almeida suggested delaying the decision to provide more clarity about what the policy would look like in practice. He said there’s a sense of distrust among the community on this file.

Almeida also recommended the board commit to tracking how this policy changes the demographics on campus in the coming years. 

Janice MacKinnon, a provincially appointed board member, said the university is leading the way by eliminating EDI. MacKinnon has previously served as Saskatchewan’s finance minister and once served as the head of a provincial panel that recommended Alberta’s government cut spending. 

MacKinnon said that she was a beneficiary of EDI hiring, and while it made a big difference in her career, she believes it wasn’t fair.

“If one person gets a leg up, not by anything that they’ve achieved or done or can contribute, [but] just because of their inherent characteristics, it’s discriminating against others and that’s wrong,” she said. 

“I understand that the motives were genuine and positive behind EDI, but on the ground it is not a policy that this university should continue.”

At an unrelated news conference on Friday, University of Alberta president Bill Flanagan told reporters the board’s decision reflects the institution’s commitment to eliminating barriers for everyone.

“We are a big and complex community, and it’s really important that we commit to being a community that is welcoming for all,” he said. 

Flanagan said the decision came out of consultation with the university community.

Lise Gotell, a women’s and gender studies professor at the university, had been advocating for the policy to be rejected. In an interview, she said the decision wasn’t surprising, but it was disappointing considering how much pushback it received. 

“I think that this administration is walking out of this with quite a legitimacy problem,” Gotell said.

Rather than leading the way, she said she thinks the university is an outlier in Canada on this issue. 

“It’s sad because I think this has marked the University of Alberta as being an anti-equity institution, a right-wing institution — that is not going to attract diverse candidates.”

Research funding

When the new hiring policy was first proposed, there were concerns about what it could mean for the university’s federal research funding. 

Certain programs like the Canada Research Chairs have legal EDI requirements. Upon learning about the university’s proposed policy, senior officials with the Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat (TIPS) contacted the school. 

Representatives from the university have repeatedly asserted that they will remain in compliance with TIPS’ requirements.

A statement from a Canada Research Chairs spokesperson on Friday said the University of Alberta is fulfilling its requirements and is in alignment with expectations. The statement said that in talks with the university, TIPS reminded the school it will continue regular monitoring to ensure ongoing compliance.